Visiting Traditional Clay Sources in Northwest New Mexico: A Proposed Collaboration between Potters & Archaeologists

Project Lead:

Hannah Mattson, Clarence Cruz, Nicholas Poister, Todd Scissons, and Genevieve Woodhead

Affiliations:

Names and affiliations of collaborating partners: Martha Romero, Nambé Pueblo (official community partner)

Project Description:

The purpose of the proposed project is for archaeologists and traditional Pueblo potters to visit natural clay sources surrounding Chacoan archaeological sites. This will serve two main goals: 1) to better understand where the area's Ancestral Pueblo inhabitants gathered materials for local pottery production, and 2) to facilitate Indigenous artists accessing and connecting to traditional resources on the cultural landscape that encompasses Chaco Canyon and its numerous associated ancestral sites. These goals would be effected through a series of field trips, during which a group of potters and the project co-PIs would identify potential ancestral clay sources surrounding Chacoan great house sites. These visits would include collection of clays by the potters to take home and assess the suitability of the different sources for pottery making. The larger goals of the project are for archaeologists studying Chaco-era pottery to learn from the expertise of contemporary Pueblo artists and for the group as a whole to advocate for both the protection of these important resources and their future accessibility by members of descendant communities.